The acquisition of academic skills has been extensively studied, and its findings have important implications for predicting the trajectory of later academic achievement in children. It has been found that this trajectory tends to stabilize following first grade, highlighting the importance of working to understand this effect in preschool and kindergarten age groups. Self-regulation and inhibitory control (IC) have been theorized to be essential factors in early success within the classroom. Furthermore, the preschool and kindergarten age groups are understood to represent a period of rapid development of these two factors, as this development allows for the exertion of greater voluntary control over one’s thoughts and actions in a classroom setting (Allan et al., 2014). The two papers discussed will explore this connection and its implications in potential localization.
In the paper covered by Dr. Martha Ann Bell, "Relations Between Frontal EEG Maturation and Inhibitory Control in Preschool in the Prediction of Children's Early Academic Skills" (Whedon et al., 2020), this correlation was directly addressed to further elucidate the link between inhibitory control and academic achievement. The researchers employed a longitudinal study to investigate three central aims—the first being to assess the general pattern of resting-state alpha EEG levels of the PFC. The researchers expected significant positive change from the 10-month to 4-year span. The second aim was to associate the change in PFC EEG alpha levels with observed IC in these infants; expecting a positive change from 10 months to 4 years in alpha-level EEG would be associated with greater inhibitory control in these children. The final objective of this study was to assess if IC at the preschool level was a mediating factor in linking frontal alpha power level to performance in math and reading within the group, expecting IC at age 4 to be positively associated with academic success at age 6.
Their findings regarding their initial inquiry displayed that from 10 months to 3 years, PFC alpha power levels increased, then declined, possibly consistent with the idea of neuronal development as a sequence of blooming and pruning of synaptic connections. Interestingly, for their second observation, the group found the slope of the relationship between IC and resting PFC alpha power was positively associated, whereas the intercept was not. Displaying that those with greater frontal alpha power at ten months didn't exactly predict greater IC values at 4; however, those displaying more significant PFC alpha power maturation across the study, displayed greater IC at age 4. Most significantly, they found that IC in children at age four positively correlated with educational outcomes in math at age six, as expected by their hypotheses, further bolstering the idea that the development of inhibitory control is critical for academic achievement (Whedon et al., 2020). However, through this study, the brain regions associated with these results, particularly involving IC, still lack understanding as source localization of the EEG data was not employed.
To better understand sources of IC, a meta-analysis by Dr. Luis Pires sought to examine inhibition-implicated regions through cortical source localization of event-related potentials (ERPs), a time-locked segment of EEG activity in response to a particular stimulus. The study categorized inhibitory responses into three segments: 0-200ms responses, 200-400ms responses, and 400-800ms responses. Focusing on components that are known correlates of inhibition control, source analysis at these timeframes served as a primary focus of his paper, “Event-Related Brain Potentials in the Study of Inhibition: Cognitive Control, Source Localization and Age-Related Modulation”. Through source analysis of the initial timeframe, the review posits that the P1 component was localized to the occipital regions of the brain. In contrast, the N1 component was bilaterally generated in occipitotemporal lobes. This early component localization can be attributed to the nature of visual processing, and due to the speed of response, it can be concluded that this is reflective of automatic inhibition processing in the visual areas. Furthermore, the study found that later inhibition-related ERP components (200-400ms) tended to have source generation in the inferior PFC regions, indicating higher-order functions being recruited in inhibitory reactions. Interestingly, they also found that it’s at this section of time that pre-supplementary motor areas also serve as a generator. This region is directly implicated in the inhibition and execution of motor actions, suggesting that this may be a critical period for the restraint of activation of a motor response. In their final analysis, ERP components from 400-800 ms were analyzed, further advancing the understanding of controlled inhibition processing. The N450 component associated with suppressing word information, critical to social interaction and functioning, was found to be very prominent throughout the literature. However, through their literary search, no relevant studies have yet examined the source localization of this component, and a conclusion regarding its generation cannot be reached (Pires et al., 2014).
Ultimately, these localization responses may serve as a route of further study within the context of inhibitory control determining academic success. This source localization work was done in adult populations, and developmental research surrounding associated components needs comparable analyses. Work to replicate these studies in kindergarten and preschool populations may further bolster the results found in Whedon et al.’s study, adding a biological correlate to their data while providing greater insight into the neuroanatomical progression of valence and variance of developing inhibitory control amongst individuals at these ages.
1.) Allan, N. P., Hume, L. E., Allan, D. M., Farrington, A. L., & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Relations between inhibitory control and the development of academic skills in preschool and Kindergarten: A meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 50(10), 2368–2379. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037493
2.) Pires, L., Leitão, J., Guerrini, C., & Simões, M. R. (2014). Event-related brain potentials in the study of inhibition: Cognitive control, source localization and age-related modulations. Neuropsychology Review, 24(4), 461–490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-014-9275-4
3.) Whedon, M., Perry, N. B., & Bell, M. A. (2020). Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of Children’s early academic skills. Brain and Cognition, 146, 105636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105636
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